Clean up on aisle 3

I used to enjoy grocery shopping, although I wasn’t really very good at it. I tended to push the cart around on an empty stomach, making sure that all the unhealthy stuff jumped right in, and the last thing I tended to worry about was the price of anything.

My beloved Janice does the shopping now and what a strange retail world it has become. Today’s case in point, Loblaws, which operates under a number of different brand names. They also own Shoppers Drug Marts, and that label is leading them in some new and interesting directions.

This week, Loblaws announced the closure of 22 supermarkets that they say have been ‘under performing’. They didn’t say the stores were losing money, and I would be surprised if that were true.

Along with the closure announcement, Loblaws released their third quarter financials, showing that profits had more than doubled over the same quarter last year. Selling food and other household goods will always be profitable, but as time goes by it’s the big guys who seem to be getting even bigger.

Like so many other retail businesses, more and more grocery shopping is being done online and delivered to our door. Amazon was the leader, and I’m sure we ain’t seen nothing yet.

Speaking of Shoppers, it’s looking more and more as though that’s where we will be heading beginning July 1st if ‘Mary Jane’ is your pleasure. Loblaws and Shoppers are pushing hard to be a major player in Canada’s marijuana business. What an interesting and perilous road this may turn out to be. Recreational pot has been legal for quite a while now in Washington and Colorado, and the cops there tell us that illegal weed is still readily available also. What about those poor Loblaws folks who will looking for jobs? At this very moment, Shoppers is advertising for a medical marijuana brand manager.

Author: Roger Currie

Veteran radio journalist, now working primarily as a writer, commentator and freelance voice. My regular commentary “Currie’s Corner” is heard on CJNU ( Nostalgia Radio ) at 93.7 FM. Text and audio can be found at http://www.cjnu.ca/c-corner.shtml. I also do a daily newscast on CJNU, at about 7.15 & 8.15, every weekday morning. It’s also posted on the CNC homepage.

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